Monthly Archives: September 2013

I won a copy of Penny Estelle’s Billy Cooper’s Awesome Nightmare when she was guesting on Kat Holmes’s blog last week. I’m really looking forward to reading it, as Billy gets to meet one of my childhood TV heroes, William Tell. Some of the history-themed shows I enjoyed back then are now on DVD, and […]

According to the Oxford dictionary, a museum is a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited. Oxford itself has several, and when I was a child, my mother took me to one of them. Which one, I’m not sure, but probably the Ashmolean. I liked it. A […]

September’s almost over. Last chance to check out Marva Dasef’s month-long focus on Time Travel/Alternate History novels for people of all ages at http://mgddasef.blogspot.ca/. Featured writers: Pat McDermott: Irish kings still rule the Emerald Isle…and a princess is in trouble. Renee Duke (Yours truly): The two little Princes in the Tower disappeared five centuries ago […]

Expanding on action-oriented history, it doesn’t have to be fast action. Kids love to dig, and history can be found in your own backyard or school playground. Depending on where you live, kids can unearth everything from arrowheads and dinosaur fossils to pottery shards and Roman coins. You can just supply some garden tools and […]

My website has been re-vamped and is designed to be kid-friendly so kids can learn more about the characters in the Time Rose series and the people and eras visited. Visit it at: http://www.reneeduke.ca

Using historical novels to teach kids history works well for kids who like to read. Unfortunately, not all kids do. Some are willing to be read to, and can be ‘got at’ that way, but what about the ones who resist all forms of printed matter that they do not actually have to read for […]

The word ‘history’ contains the word ‘story’, and as Rudyard Kipling once said, “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” I agree. Consider these historical facts: • Back in Shakespeare’s day, plays had to be written out by hand. • Before the Civil War, abolitionists helped American slaves […]